francis



S. W. FRANCIS.

OMNIBUS CANE.

Patented Mar. 30, 1858.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

s. w. FRANCIS.,4 or NEW YORK, N. Y.

CANE FOR PAYING OMNIBUS-FARES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 19,765, dated March 30, 1858.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL WARD FRAN- CIS, of New York, in the county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented an Omnibus-Cane for Handing Fare to Omnibus-Drivers; and yI do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact descriptionthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in having at one end of a cane a cylindrical cavity containing a number of three-cent pieces and using a mechanism so arranged, that two three-cent pieces are pushed out through a side opening, each time a knob, placed at the other end of the cane is pressed down.

The object of my invention is to enable omnibus passengers to pay their fare without leaving their seats or otherwise interfering with the comfort of their neighbors.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation, reference being made to the drawings of which-- Figure I. is a longitudinal view: Fig. II. is a longitudinal section: Fig. III, a cross section through X V of Fig. II: Fig. IIV, represents a modified arrangement of parts.

I construct my cane of two pieces U and V glued or riveted together lengthwise, after the mechanism has been inserted in part V which forms a little more than one half of the cane. l

A A is the cane.

B'B is a tube of metal inside of which the three-cent pieces are placed in C.

I) is a piston; E, a spring; F, a movable cover held in its place by a bayonet arrangement.

Z is an immovable bottom against which the pieces are pressed by spring E.

C is a slot.

P is an 'opening wider than two threecent pieces and smaller than three.l J is a cover for this opening; it is carried by lever I which is held in its place by spring N.

L K is a bell lever the long arm of which projects inside the tube through slot O a distance longer than the thickness of one, and smaller than the thickness of two threecent pieces. On the side of this long arm there is a projection K, which acts against the end of lever I. Spring M keeps this lever in its place. The small arm L is united by wire T with another bell lever Q, which carries a knob R and is held by spring S. The tube B is held in it-s place by means of a projecting pin P which enters a recess in the wood, and by a slide G which is nicked in H. v

The way of loading the cane is as follows: slide Cr is drawn out in H. The cane is shaken and tube B comes out. Cover F is removed together with spring E and piston D. Three-cent pieces are let fall, one by one into the tube B, then the piston, spring, and cover Fare put in. The tube is inserted in the cane and made fast by pushing in slide Cr.

To use the cane it is simply necessary to press down knob R. vWire T is thus pulled upon, and puts lever L in motion. Projection K acts on lever I, uncovers opening P, and the end of long arm of lever L K pushes two pieces, half way out; t-hese being removed by the driver, and knob R being left free things are ready for another operation.

It is obvious that my invention may be applied to five-cent and ten-cent pieces or other fares that it may be possible to pay with one or more pieces of money of about the same diameter.

Fig. III, represents another way of arranging the parts substantially the same. In this figure small letters are used to indicate parts equivalent to those marked by capitals in Fig. II. j z' is a wire for preventing the pieces from falling accidentally through opening 79. It is fastened to slide y which is moved by wire t. The end l of lever 7c Z enters a notch a: 3/ out in the slide and it is acted upon by shoulders o@ and y. This last arrangement requires less rod than the one first described and for this reason would be better for umbrella-sticks.

I do not limit myself to the arrangement just described, as I know it can be modified in a variety of ways to obtain t-he same result; but what I claim as, in general, my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

Inserting pieces of money in a cane for the purpose of handing omnibus fares substantially' as described and set forth.

SAML. W. FRANCIS. 

